


A Healing Touch

by KrakinKraken



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Night Terrors, Panic Attacks, Post-Civil War (Marvel), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sleep Paralysis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-11 21:43:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11723160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrakinKraken/pseuds/KrakinKraken
Summary: The war wasn't kind to Billy, and the wounds have yet to heal. Luckily, he doesn't have to be alone.





	A Healing Touch

**Author's Note:**

> I figured I'd write something short, to get myself back in the game. Plus, I'm still bitter we never got any closure on the Civil War arc. So here's this.

The restraints were cold and unforgiving. They held him perfectly still in the same half-reclined position he’d been in for God knows how long. The metal bindings were cinched in deep around his wrists and legs, cutting off blood flow. He thought they might have cut into him, but he was too numb to be sure, and the headset locked around his eyes prevented him from confirming visually. In fact, he couldn’t see himself at all. All he could see through the screens were what he figured was a simulation, placing him at the bank of a river, alongside lush trees and facing out over the vast, rocky landscape.  He didn’t know why he was seeing this, and sometimes he began to doubt which senses were telling him the truth. If it wasn’t for the hatch, he might have lost his grip on ‘’reality’’ already. It would open periodically, seemingly a hole in the world as he saw it, showing a metal corridor, and helmeted, mocking heads staring at him, making sure he hadn’t tried to get away.  

 

He didn’t remember how he’d gotten here in the first place, whatever ‘’here’’ was.  He was with the rest of Cap’s resistance, then he felt a few dozen sharp pains in his back, and he woke up in the room. He was still woozy from the sedation, and the dull purple lighting in the room itself seemed to scramble his thoughts, blurring them together. They spoke at him, in a disinterested, monotonous tone, but his brain couldn’t piece the words together. Then, they’d attached and turned on the headset, in addition to the cuffs pinning his hands to the arms of the chair, the metal cocoon wrapped around his lower half, and the muzzle and collar wrapped around his head, muting him completely. It hadn’t been removed since.  

 

He was trapped there. Alone. With nothing to block out his thoughts. _ Where was he? What were they planning? Who where they? Where was his team? Where was Teddy?  _ The last one was what circled through his mind the most.  _ What if they were back in the Cube? What if they were cutting his boyfriend apart right next to him, and he was helpless to save him again?  _ A butterfly passed in front of him, but all he could see was the scalpel slicing open the skin  _ again _ and  _ again _ until he passed out from exhaustion again, the world going black to a chorus of flesh parting and blood dripping. It wasn’t long before he’d wished they’d have just killed him then and there. It would have been kinder.  __

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


‘’ _ BILLY!’’  _

 

He shook awake with a start, gasping for air like a man half-drowned, vision spotty and blurred, muscles numb and unresponsive. The blur in front of him had no clear shape, but he knew who he wanted,  _ needed _ , it to be, but some part of his brain knew it wasn’t real. He had blacked out again, or this was some game the guards were playing to make him lower his guard, or-

 

_ ‘’You need to wake up!’’  _ the soft voice came again, the sound alone filled him with a warmness he couldn’t quite describe, making his heart flutter, but settle at the same time. He felt the heat of large hands pressed against the small of his back, and arms wrapped around his chest, holding him close, and he dared to think that maybe it was real. 

 

They laid like that for a while, Billy slowly coming back to his senses, shaking and sobbing profusely clinging to his boyfriend like he was his only lifeline, keeping him from drifting away. Teddy rocked him softly, guiding Billy’s hand to where the wound had been, to remind him that he was okay, trying to will away his own tears and keep a brave face, whispering reassurances in his ear, the same as he had done every night since they had finally gotten to go home, and the adrenaline had worn off. They were safe, they were together, and it was over. 


End file.
